I need help from Hindus here?

Question

Only Hindus answer,others plz dont answer if you have nothing better to say,simply ignore this question,if you feel yourself a devoted follower of your respected religions.

To all the Hindus,
I am doing a theisis on Hinduism and soon will be opting to start a book on it.It's name 'Hinduism-A victim of misunderstandings.'I have got a certain amount of info regarding it.If anyone of you have any info regarding early Hinduism,vedanta philosophy,tantra philosophy etc.pliz post it here,or provide links to websites also i need help with illustration so any pic of temples etc are welcum.
Thanks.

Answer 1

I am not a Hindu, even then I thought I can help you. I have researched Mahabharata and found many things due to whcih Hinduism has become victorm of misunderstanding. Hope this will be helpful for your theises and you will also like it.

1) Santanu, King of Hastinapura, marries Ganga. Begets Bheeshma. Then Ganga goes bye bye after Santanu interferes in her personal space.



All fine till now. King has a son and he needs a new queen (As the old one decided to ditch him).



The King as he walks in the forest is struck at the beauty of a fisherman's daughter. Satyavati by name.Satyavati was otherwise known as Yojanagandha.



Guess why?Sage Parashara was "enamoured" by her, and they both had a child who is known to the world as Veda Vyasa. Sage Parashara gave her a boon that she would emit fragrance from within her body which would spread for a whole Yojana.



So the King basically wants to marry someone who has already begotten a child. Nothing wrong with that. But, the fisherman puts the condition that Bheeshma should not be crowned king, and the one born of Satyavati/Santanu should only become king. Also, Bheeshma's generations should never become king.



Raja Santanu is now in a dilemma -- On one side Bheeshma has to take a hike. On the other he has to control his "feelings" for Satyavati.



Seeing his Dad's "dilemma" our dear Bheeshma offers to stay celibate. He vows not to marry and beget children. Also he vows he would never become king.

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Can't a king control his feelings for a girl? When his son is so mature that he says he would stay celibate, what crazy king (that too at that age), would decide to marry a girl. Is the king "THAT" desperate?

It is said that this very king gave Bheeshma the boon (so pleased at his sons devotion), that Bheeshma could live for as long as he wanted and would die only when he chose to. Hey come on, give me a break. The king himself seems a loser to me. How could he have such powers as to grant an almost "immortal" boon to Bheeshma?



Ok, thats not fine.



2) Satyavati gives birth to two children , Chitrangadha and Vichitraveerya. Now, these two are incapable of consummating (in some versions it is said they died too early before giving birth to children....but I think that is just a polished way of putting things). So kingdom has no heir (as Bheeshma is also not going to help here). So what does our dear Queen Satyavati do?



She brings along her first born Veda Vyasa to do the job these two goons have failed to do. Veda Vyasa impregnates Ambika and Ambalika (and another Dasi (servant) woman). To them are born Dhritharashtra (born blind), Pandu (with white skin disorder), and Vidura (an excellent tactician and a brilliant politician).

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Ok, so basically these kids are of Veda Vyasa and not Santanu's. So not only is our dear Bheeshma made to bear the ignominy of having to protect and serve his younger step brothers, he now has to serve and protect these new goons (Pandu and Dhritharashtra), who for that matter are not even the Royal Lineage. They are basically grandchildren of Sage Parashara to put it into proper perspective. They are not even Kshatriyas in that respect. Hmm....something wrong here :)



3) So is it over?

Nope.

More confusion.



Pandu has a curse upon himself that if he were to touch a women he would immediately die (ya this happened because he killed a Sage when the Sage was having sex. So the Sage basically got pissed and cursed Pandu :(....boy talk of revenge).



Pandu was given Kingdom because his elder brother was blind. If that be the case, since Pandu cannot have sex, let Vidura (his younger brother) get the kingdom. Would that not be logical? Was there some suppression here because he was born of a Dasi?



Do we see a bit of attitude here?



So now, Kunti is called for help. She has a "boon" with which she can invoke any God to give her a child (oh ya, the details of how exactly the Gods would "give" her a child are left to imagination).



Oh ya, I forgot, she had once used this power upon Surya Deva(Sun God), and already had an illegitimate son by name Karna (who grows up as a charioteers son).

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Poor Karna. What was his fault. His stupid mom was afraid she will get a bad name for having a child before marrying someone. So she throws the kid into the river. Is Kunti a "High born" or are Karna's Charioteer Parents "High Born".

Karna is logically the ELDEST of all the Pandavas and Kauravas (to come soon). So technically he now should be king....but what happened?



So now Pandu cannot have kids. Kunti can invoke Gods to give her kids. Hence she invokes Lord Yama, Indra, Vayu (in that order) and gives birth to Yudhistra, Arjuna and Bheema.



She then tells this secret to Madri (Pandus second wife), and she in turn invokes the Ashvini Twins and gives birth to Nakula and Sahadeva.

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Ok, the King cannot have sex with Kunti/Madri. So Kunti calls a whole battalion of Gods and begets children. Why could she not have stopped with just one kid, if it is only a question of lineage?

The Choice of Gods -- In essence, these ladies wanted to sleep around with these Gods. Thats the bare fact. And they did. It mustve been a very very very very tolerant society for the husband to knowingly acknowledge this fact. Hmm...something to think about here.

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So, here again the kids are not of Pandu's. Now Bheeshma after having served his step brothers, and then Vyasa's kids, now has to serve these kids of the Gods. Oh my God!!!

I always wondered if Bheeshma was a nut case? I have a doubg if these thoughts ever crossed his mind : "Where is my allegiance? Who are all these people sitting in my dads throne. A bunch of people from a whole different set of families"



Hmm...



The biggest comedy of all this is that these kids end up fighting each other for the throne, which really "Lawfully" belongs to Bheeshma.



Sad part is Bheeshma dies "protecting" his kingdom. Oh my god....am I confused :)



What exactly is "Dharma". What is correct and what is wrong? Hmm...maybe I am not fit enough to pass comments on this, but I can say one thing for sure. lol.

Answer 2

There are many misconceptions, like polytheism, caste based on color of skin, worshipping idols, but a specific ones that are prevalent among Hindus themselves:

1. There are 33 Billion gods and goddesses (vedas and upanishads mention only 33, and actually spell it out)

2. Belief in fate: there is no fate but the result of your past karma

3. That things such as self-immolation and hurting our selves is better than hurting others. If god is in everyone, then god is in me as well, and I should take care not to hurt myself just as much as the other person.

4. A lot of people (including myself) dont know why we touch our elder's feet, why the tilak, why we do aarti etc.

5. That hinduism was created by the invading aryans who subjugated the "dasyus" a native tribe: dasyus according to the vedas are the ten senses that Indra, your mind, must conquer. (that is what I understand)

There are lots of others I am sure that I will only understand as keep reading further. Hari Om.

Answer 3

Hinduism- A victim of misunderstandings!



Truely said, It is. This is only because our religion does not have strict rules or straight forward laws, and its very open and free. We don't have any baptism ritual to make someone a Hindu, Hinduism is Way of Life, more than just a Religion.



Misunderstandig about the Mahabhart War : This war was not for Land, nor for the Throne, It was between Dharm and Adharm.



Kaurava's who were self-centered, egoistic, and selfish rulers, who denied the existance of God, and acted as if they are all knowing, best of best of their time. They lived a materialistic life of animals.



Where as, Pandavas were selfless workers, who were true devotees of God, and always thought about the best for their kingdom and of the people of the Kingdom. They were living more spiritual life of true ideal human beings.



So, if you know Bad rulers could ruin the situation of the Kingdom and its people, wouldn't you want to prevent that. So, Thats exactly what Pandvas did, and Lord Krishna himslef took the side of Pandvas, and It was the side of the good and the truth and thus Pandvas won the battle.



It was the victory of Dharma over Adharma, a Victory of spiritualism over materialism, a Victory of selfless people over selfish people, a victory of Humbleness over egoism, a victory of devotees over demons, and like everyone likes to say, Its a Victory of Good over Evil.



So, my point is Hinduism seems very complex but once you understand it, its is crystal clear, why the things are, the way they are, why certain things are written in the vedas and puraans, the way they are, and why we perform some of the rituals that we do today. In Hinduism, Everything has a deeper meaning behins it, and every ritual has a psychological, social, or scientific reasoning behind it.



For me Hinduism is a pot of Gold! Once you dive into it, you only get richer in your knowledge.



And God, I'm so thankful to know all this......



And ya...If you need more info, please check out the site.



http://www.hinduism.co.za/



And if you need any help, or need to ask any question, please feel free to e-mail at

[e-mail]

Answer 4

The English translation sof the four ancient vedas viz he Rig , the Yajur , the Sama and the Adharva ar available in the web .

if you want to understand the philosoph yfthe Hindu religons , yu have it in a succint form in the Bhagavad gita. It provides n abstact of he whol;e Himndu philosophy and shows what god is and tells every aspect of god , and lif which corresponds to the results of modern scientiofic research.

to hav a clear idea about this aspect , yu must read the Engklish rendering of the ?bhagavad Gita by BARBARA STOLER MILLER , the Pfoessor of Sanskrit and head of h Department of oriental studies of he univrsity of Columbia ( New York) .the book is avilable in Barnes and Noble Book shops and iused copies would be available withAmazon .com. The new one costs about $6 .. One withe a good knowldege in science will appreciate and understand the verses very well it will e astounding to see them correspond to the findings of modern scientific research.

In fact I read somewhere that Alber Eintein himself remared somehting like this - when I read bhagavad -Gita and reflected on the creation of the universe , everything else seems superfluous ".

Answer 5

The 'ism' represents principle, isn't ! and principles are always editable to befit the situations prevailing at times.

Not Hinduism but we Hindus have been victimised by our negative egos to acquire westernisation, without ascertaining positive & negative aspect of it and ignoring the "HINDUISM" in totality but posing that we respect the principles.In fact the Hinduism is the total humanity.

A good step, wish you good luck. You must refer "Shri Ramcharit Manas" & "Shrimad Bhagwad Geeta" besides the "Smrities" & "Purans" as well as the books written by various writers & poets i.e. Bhartendu Harishchandra, Sumitranandan Pant, Jayashankar Prashad, Mahadevi Verma, Ramkumar Verma, Sant Kabir, Rahim.,Bihari to name some.

God bless you to bring successive results.

Answer 6

Dear Sengupta,

I am a Hindu. I feel that you have bitten off a hefty chunk. Hinduism is misunderstood by most Hindus themselves.



At one end there are the tribal deities, sometimes specific to that village or settlement.

At the other end there is monism the formless,attributeless Self.

In between are all the variants of Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Devi worship etc..



Your book may well run into 26 volumes like the Greater Oxford English Dictionary.



More power to your elbow. You will need it.

Answer 7

Well Sengupta Hinduism is not a easy religion or should I say living standard to understand. It has evolved in more than 10000 years and includes research from countless sages and people and that is why it is called SANATANA.



Let us start with Vedas the oldest scriptures in the world and which has been studied always givin new meaning to every word and even today people have failed to decipher it completly. It has Six kind of meanings in each verse - Spritual, Geographical, Astronomical, As it is i.e. word to word translation, History and Between the lines. Yes I believe it has a Sixth meaning which we are unable to understand and this is what causes confusion. I am writing on this sixth meaning and believe me if I am able to decipher even 10% of Vedas the so called modern science will start looking lioke a baby before it. When going through the vedas I sometimes do not understand how people in those times could understand and write about things which our modern scientists were unable to understand till recently and have now told the same thing which our ancestors have written 10000 years back.



What and who are Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh? A question often asked but no one has been able to decipher them till date. We had people who knew and understood all deep meanings but with Muslim and Christian invasions these people stoped telling the secrets to anyone and we lost this creed of people.



European scholars have tried to decipher the meaning of our scriptures especially Vedas but they do not want to show it existed before Bible and Mosa and so they changed all meanings acordingly since if proved to be older the whole base of christanity will fall to pieces. Our Indian scholars have also not done much except following what the europeand coined for reasons well known to them like Nehru wanted support of British government to become PM and he followed what foreign historians said. Indo Aryan invasion theory has been proved to be wrong but even today this is being used since it helps politically yes in gaining votes.



Our own politicians like this confusion since it helps them in divide and rule policy (I think they need to change after what Mayawati did in UP elections) and gain votes.



So, to remove all this confusion and understanding Vedic and Sanatana in a better way you need to study them deeply and try to understand the sixth meaning which is deeper than the spritual one and this is difficult believe me.

Answer 8

There is no mention of the word "Hindus" in the whole Vedic Scriptures. Your book on Hinduism is sure to be a waste.

First know the reason why are there so many religions etcc...What is God..then u'll come to know abt the so called Hindu religion.

Please answer the real meaning of "Religion"



Rgds,

Srinivas Kumar

[e-mail]

www.radhashyamsundar.com

Answer 9

Here is a tip for u.

We are all humans and we dont go very deep in all things we see. Only those which are our interest we go so deep that we enjoy exploring it.

But when we are not going deep we tend to say these grapes are sour. If u exploring something dont get stuck up at the surface.

Dont fall in love with words. There are things which are in expressible in words. Dont fall in love with descriptions as there are things which cant be described.

Think and reflect on this. In class though of 100 students. Each student has different understanding of the same lesson though the master who is unfolding is one.

So will u come across many things but jus be a scientist and try to get the truth.

If u come across something conflicting in ur reseach send that info to me I will try to explain to u.

Answer 10

Well, you are going to get the "this is only the tip of the iceberg" feeling very soon, but a random good place to start is Swami Sivananda's books -- check out Divine Life Society at http://www.dlshq.org/ and http://www.dlshq.org/books.htm. Also look for books by Max Mueller, among numerous others.

Answer 11

I am also currently planning a book on hinduism!!! What a coincidence! Again, similar to you I wanted to write a book to clear people's mis-understanding. 90% of the conceptions people have about Hinduism are complete false misconceptions. People don't look at the vedic texts and all the maths, science and arts it contains; they don't look at intellectually sophisticated knowledge that our doctrines contains; they don't look at things like sanscrit mantras etc. They wrongly think that we worship cows and idols and that the bloody wretched caste system is actually part of the Hindu faith. I wanted to clear all this misunderstanding. I wanted to clear this misunderstanding but I also wanted to convey to people that Hinduism isn't a hippy "anything goes" religion but is a monotheistic religion like Islam and Christianity and we also have an ethical and moral code of conduct.



In relation to your question, I have lots of info for you. It is hard because I don't exactly know what you require. E-mail me with specifics and then I can help you. Please Please Please make sure that in your book you explain the truth about the wretched caste system and the stupid aryan invasion theory which so many wrongly believe in. And please please please explain that the "idols" we use are only there to "symbolise" god and NOT to "constitute" god. Because, I have become tired of explaining to people's thick heads.



There are literally thousands of Hinduism websites on the internet but I think these are the three best ones:



http://www.hinduwisdom.info/index_new.htm

http://www.hinduism.co.za/

http://www.sanatansociety.org/

Answer 12

look dear, first of all ignore answer number 5. I'm devoted hindu and if you r really serious (if so i'm happy) read books written by Swami Vivekananda (I think web sites can be no serious substitute for books). So first visit a good book store\ library and buy\read a book written by devoted hindu AUTHOR. I suggest you read Sri Ramakrishna math's books.

Answer 13

Hinduism is not victim. We are victims in not understanding it, as it should be. For example, pride means humbleness in Hinduism. What is your take on that?



I wish you success in writing the book. Where you think I could be of some help, you have access to me through R&S.



Best of luck!

Answer 14

Good luck.. I think you have recd. enough input from YA...



...you forgot Shri Aurobindo...without whom hinduism is incomplete



will write to you if internet allows



no websites.. i write..what i have experienced myself !

Answer 15

hello. u r doing a commendable work. congratulations.i too am a writer and wish to right something about religion or humanity one day.pls feel free to e mail me whenever u hav any queries.i wil try my best to help.all the best .

Answer 16

http://www.sacred-texts.com



http://www.hindunet.org



http://www.hinduismtoday.com



http://360.yahoo.com/ommotherlifeforce



coppyed history from hinduism today sight on my post--1994



http://360.yahoo.com/heron_bythesea

Answer 17

my dear i think you can find on inter net

if you go to the hindu web sights.

Answer 18

I was a hindu and am not a christian. I converted and so did my family and boyfriend too. Christ lives in me... but I am Indian so my whole town came to know... but of course now I am in the US so life is better with the nice churches to pray at...



I had to answer this and hope it helps you in your book.

Answer 19

im not a Hindu (wish i was one) so i wont answer: but can i still read the answers?

Answer 20

.



yes there is lot,

just mail me your quaries/points,



believe you me,

(something different from the books)

sure...

Answer 21

try these:



www.hindunet.org

www.religionfacts.com

www.sacredtexts.com

www.religionfacts.com

www.hinduwebsite.com

www.allaboutreligion.org/history-of-hinduism-faq.htm

www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/history/index.shtml